damp

adj

Etymology: From Middle English dampen (“to stifle; suffocate”). Akin to Low German damp, Dutch damp, and German Dampf (“vapor, steam, fog”), Icelandic dampi, Swedish damm (“dust”), and to German dampf imperative of dimpfen (“to smoke”). Also Middle English dampen (“to extinguish, choke, suffocate”). Ultimately all descend from Proto-Germanic *dampaz.

1. In a state between dry and wet; moderately wet; moist.

   “25 January 2017, Leena Camadoo writing in The Guardian, Dominican banana producers at sharp end of climate change Once the farms have been drained and the dead plants have been cut down and cleared, farmers then have to be alert for signs of black sigatoka, a devastating fungus which flourishes in damp conditions and can destroy banana farms.”

   “She said no more. The trembling Trojans hear, O'erspread with a damp sweat and holy fear.”

2. Despondent; dispirited, downcast.

   “27 July 2016, Jane O’Faherty in The Irish Independent, Monarchs and prison officers win big on second race day Though Travis's 'Why does it always Rain on Me' boomed around the stands, there were few damp spirits in Galway on day two of the races.”

   “All these and more came flocking; but with looks / Down cast and damp.”

3. Permitting the possession of alcoholic beverages, but not their sale.

   “The Roadhouse was twenty-seve miles down the road from Niniltna, nine feet and three inches outside the Niniltna Native Association's tribal jurisdiction, and therefore not subject to the dry law currently in effect. Or was it damp? Kate thought it might have changed, yet again, at the last election, from dry to damp, or maybe it was from wet to damp.”

name

Etymology: Borrowed from German Damp.

1. A municipality in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
2. A surname from German.
3. A surname from English.

noun

1. Initialism of damage-associated molecular pattern.
2. Acronym of deficits in attention, motor control and perception.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English dampen (“to stifle; suffocate”). Akin to Low German damp, Dutch damp, and German Dampf (“vapor, steam, fog”), Icelandic dampi, Swedish damm (“dust”), and to German dampf imperative of dimpfen (“to smoke”). Also Middle English dampen (“to extinguish, choke, suffocate”). Ultimately all descend from Proto-Germanic *dampaz.

1. To suppress vibrations (mechanical) or oscillations (electrical) by converting energy to heat (or some other form of energy).

   “Hydraulic shock absorbers are used to damp out vertical and lateral oscillations.”

2. To dampen; to make moderately wet.

   “to damp cloth”

   “It just damps a bit, but it een't not to sey reen.”

3. To put out, as fire; to weaken, restrain, or make dull.

   “How many a day has been damped and darkened by an angry word!”

   “My Lords, that I am yet to be told that it behoves a Minister of this free country to set bounds to the philanthropy, to cramp the charity, to fetter the public spirit, to contract the enterprise, to damp the independent self-reliance of its people.”